Chapter 157 - The Millennium Auction House
[Hannah]
Everything was quiet. Hannah stood next to Devin and Elera, nestled in between dozens of summer elf warriors clad in their white plate armor. Intermingled among them was the twilight elf faction in matching black plate. They were short and lanky with pitch-black skin and armor to match.
If the summer elves were the Baywatch beach bimbos with dark tans and blond hair, then the twilight elves were their cave-dwelling counterparts. They had a volatile and toxic relationship with each other, which Hannah found curious, seeing as they shared a first floor. Elera complained about them nonstop, which made it odd that the Twilight Lord was so desperate to marry her. Apparently, they had some prophecy about the offspring of a twilight elf and summer elf, which the Twilight Lord was a very adamant believer in.
Hannah did a bit more digging into the soul oath Elera had sworn to the man. That was even stranger. Soul oaths on the first floor had been an enormous hassle and had sort of turned everyone off of ever making one again. Elera had told her that pretty much every single race in the Tower goes through exactly the same thing when first getting integrated. People swore soul oaths to each other left and right then were shocked when they got fucked over for breaking their oath.
On the upper floors, society had evolved to using soul oaths as more of a rule enforcement. Elera had said her soul oath with the Twilight Lord was a ‘game within a game,’ and she was right. The terms of the oath were simple. Cassius would agree to buy out whatever Elera wanted from the auction house. If he did so, upon making it back to the first floor, she would have to marry him.
Elera, for her part, had to agree that she wouldn’t try to kill him herself on the second floor, hence why Jack and Hannah were now involved. Apparently, Cassius knew he would be the target of assassination for the duration of the auction house, and he was even fine with it. That was how soul oaths got used in the Tower, apparently—to create rules upon which both parties agreed.
Hannah glanced at Devin, who wasn’t supposed to be here. Their plans had changed once more. Hannah hated when plans changed. It was the telltale sign that they were underprepared. They did have good reason, though.
Gideon stood in the middle of a crowd of people, a giant, hulking scimitar resting on his shoulder, lazily throwing some poor bastard’s head up and down in his free hand. She had watched him kill about thirteen different people so far while waiting for the auction house to open.
Elera had to return to her encampment almost immediately in the second sector. Gideon had shown up in full force, and he was royally pissed off. Apparently, he really did intend to protect humanity. When he found out that the Golden Scale had been wiped out completely, due to the sudden jump in danger level, he’d unleashed a dragon’s fury on the second floor.
For once, Hannah was glad Jack wasn’t here… Well, sorta. The idiot would have charged headlong into a fight with the dragon with no concern for his well-being. Hannah felt her fists tighten in frustration as she glanced up at the moon. It had been three days, the auction was starting, and Jack still wasn’t back. She kept looking for any changes, concerned that he might set off an alarm and blow the place up further, but everything remained the same. She wanted him back here to help. Despite what she may say, doing jobs without Jack made her nervous as hell, a fact she would never openly admit to him. At the same time, she was glad he was so far away. Her feelings on the matter were a bit complicated, to say the least.
Gideon—with his cocksure, angry smile—looked much better than he had on the first floor. Full. More complete. Perfect, even. Hannah thought she’d understood how strong he was. She thought she knew what to expect from him, but she had been woefully misinformed as to the depths of his strength. He had seemed so manageable on the first floor…
His titanic roar when he climbed over the wall as a golden dragon shattered those thoughts into a thousand pieces. He leveled half the sector with one draconic breath. Every flap of his wings stirred up flaming tornadoes. He terrorized the skies and devoured anyone who tried to oppose him. He was truly monstrous, and he was stronger than Jack by a long shot. She buried the thought in her mind, refusing to give it the time of day any longer. She closed her eyes and took a deep, calming breath as she gathered her focus.
As for why Devin was here and not hiding out in the Twilight Lord’s mansion, well, Gideon was pretty pissed and vowed to kill the guy on his arrival to the floor, holding him responsible for all the human deaths that had transpired. Cassius had yet to leave his mansion, and even Gideon was having trouble breaking inside, so there was little to no hope of sneaking Devin past the fire-breathing dragon and into a fortress with his target already keyed up and waiting for him.
“Ya know, they say Luck isn’t a real thing. But I think they’re wrong,” Elera whispered next to her.
“What do you mean?” Hannah asked.
“I mean, I go through all this trouble to assassinate my potential future husband, and then the universe sends me a giant golden dragon to wipe him off the map. I’m the luckiest girl alive.”
Hannah chuckled. She liked Elera. Oddly enough, she reminded her of Jack. Elera wasn’t a terribly smart or strategic person, Hannah was learning, but that was more because she didn’t need to be smart or strategic. She was absurdly powerful and operated under the might-makes-right policy. She had even gone so far as to stand up against Gideon when he started killing summer elves. She lost, of course, but she did stop him from wiping out her entire clan, with Gideon mumbling something about not wanting to deal with the Queen of Summer, Elera’s mother.
Hannah hadn’t revealed herself to the dragon yet, and she honestly wasn’t sure she was going to. She wanted to be sure of the man's motives before they had their reunion.
Despite Gideon showing up and wreaking havoc in the sector, the Twilight Lord followed through with his plan to rush the auction house. She glanced to her right at the building they were all surrounding. It vaguely reminded her of the Sydney Opera House, with a shell-like design serving as the roof. It honestly didn’t look big enough for how many people were crowded around the entrance, with Gideon holding the line. It was set to open in the next five minutes.
Hannah studied the hundreds of thousands of people jammed into the small zone inside of the sector. This wasn’t the only entrance, but it was the primary one, which all the powerhouses made a point of setting up shop in front of. Hannah had no frame of reference for anyone here or what the power scale was like. Everyone, of course, would be weaker on the second floor, their stats reduced to whatever they were while they were here, but that didn’t at all mean they were weak. She could practically taste the power in the air. It burned in her throat.
It wasn’t as bad as it could be, though. From what Elera had gathered, the plan to rush the auction house had worked, and a lot of people were caught with their pants down, missing the event entirely.
“I heard Kilgor is here,” one of the elves whispered excitedly.
“What? No way; he’s dead. Plus, if he was here, you think Gideon would just be standing there?”
Hannah tried to listen to what the two elves were talking about, but the crowds started bustling and moving.
“It’s time. Anyone seen Nutt?” Devin asked, scanning the crowd.
“Down here!” he screamed. Hannah glanced down to see him wearing his cauldron like a helmet. She had yet to see him actually mix anything inside of it.
“You were unusually quiet; I thought you had gone missing,” Devin said.
“Very dangerous, this,” was all Nutt offered, taking a grave tone. That made Hannah even more nervous, if Nutt, of all people, had the wherewithal to know this was going to be dangerous.
“Dangerous? This is the fun part.” Elera was grinning ear to ear, and the summer elves began to part as she moved forward. Both Hannah and Devin tightened their cloaks and pulled their hoods over their heads as they followed behind her.
“It’s open!” someone near the door screamed. The crowds broke out into a massive shove-fest in an instant, everyone pushing up against each other as people placed their hands on the auction house door and disappeared. The summer elf guards did a good job of clearing a path for Elera as she made her way inside. She stopped briefly to address her soldiers before going in.
“Hold fast. I’ll be a fair bit more powerful when I return. All you need to do is survive, and I will save you,” she declared.
Everyone cheered in response.
Hannah placed her hand on the door alongside Elera, entering the auction. A system prompt was there to greet her.
Welcome to the Millenium Auction House.
Eye contact must be maintained with the desired item to place a bid.
Place bids using the crystal attached at the wrist.
Violence inside is strictly prohibited, and you will be forcefully removed.
Three hours remaining until the auction is closed.
Hannah scanned through the rules and raised her arm to get a better look at the bracelet. A small crystal was hanging from a leather cord wrapped around her wrist.
Elera appeared next to her, eyes vacant as she scanned through the notification from the auction house, then inspected her bracelet, too.
“Devin and Nutt are missing,” Hannah said, looking around as people appeared one-by-one in rapid fashion.
Elera tsked in annoyance. “This way,” she said, paying zero attention to the items surrounding them in the display cases and moving to the balcony. Hannah followed her, peering over herself.
There was a large atrium with a balcony that started at the base level and wrapped around it over and over and over again, heading up at least twenty stories. Elera and Hannah were on the third story. Hannah turned back to look at the items in the glass display cases. They were scattered haphazardly although out the wide hallway.
The Last Punch
Type: Fist Weapon
Tier: Epic
Enchantment Slots: 8/8
[Combo - 8 Slots]
Increases damage with each consecutive punch
****
Never stop swinging.
[Time: 00:10:00]
That shocked Hannah a bit. She glanced at another item. It was also Epic, but had a two-hour timer. In fact, every single item had a different, obscure timer all within three hours. She looked up and down the upward-spiraling hallway at the dozens of glass display cases, each with their own items and timers.
“Come on,” Elera said, grabbing Hannah’s arm and pulling her away. She hopped over the balcony and down to the first floor. Hannah followed suit, which started an outpouring of people doing the exact same as they made their way to the center atrium, where four large, glass cases stood.
People started pushing and shoving to get a better look, and a fight even broke out. Both people simply disappeared, which did wonders to calm down the crowd. Hannah and Elera managed to make their way to the three items.
The first was an elegant potion bottle with a shimmering liquid inside that kept shifting through colors at a breakneck pace.
Catch-All of Ascension
Type: Elixir
Tier: Legendary
Description:
A catch-all elixir designed to upgrade any one race to Legendary without fail.
*****
Product of Andurian.
[Time: 03:00:00]
She snorted slightly. Jack would burst a gasket if he saw an Andurian product in here.
She moved to the second item, a brightly glowing ember.
Ember of the First Flame
Type: Reagent
Tier: Legendary
Description:
Can be absorbed into your core. Doubles the intensity of all fire-based mana. Adds a tinge of the first flame to all other types of mana. Limit one per core.
*****
A burning heart which refuses to die, a fragment of the first flame. Its glow is steady, and undying. Its warmth is endless.
[Time: 03:00:00]
That piqued Hannah’s curiosity, but she quickly put it out of her mind as she saw the bidding war already taking place. It was already at five hundred million and rapidly rising. Plus, Elera was salivating as she stared at it, which likely meant she would be purchasing it.
The third item really got Hannah’s attention.
The Unseen Allure
Type: Quiver
Tier: Legendary
Enchantment Slots: 16/16
[Invisible Shot – Natural Enchant]
Enchant any five arrows you fire, making them completely invisible and erasing all mana signatures. Recharge time: ten minutes. Can be combined with Alluring Shot.
[Alluring Shot – Natural Enchant]
Enchant any five arrows you fire, so anyone who looks at the arrow is unable to break their gaze away. Recharge time: ten minutes. Can be combined with Invisible Shot.
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
[Heroic Focus – 16 Slots]
+500 Focus
*****
Favored quiver of Tanalor the Hunter. You either don’t see it coming, or you can’t look away.
[Time: 03:00:00]
She immediately spent her three hundred million AP points on it.
“Hey, that’s you!” Elera exclaimed. Hannah felt her heart sink as her bid was instantly bested by another hundred million.
“Had to try.” Hannah shrugged, watching the numbers climb higher and higher. Hannah glanced back at the Ember, but Elera hadn’t made a bid yet. Or, if she had, it was already outbid, the price climbing into the billions. Hannah glanced around. People were still jumping down from the balcony from every single floor to catch a glimpse of the items.
They moved onto the final item, people staring at it in both awe and confusion. A simple ring floated inside the large glass case. It was a simple, unpolished silver, with some etchings that looked like chicken scratch all around it. Hannah inspected the item.
Looper’s Insanity
Type: Ring
Tier: Ancient
Enchantment Slots: 24/24
[Natural Enchant – Looper’s Domain]
Transports the wearer to Looper’s Domain, a timeless realm designed to improve one’s strength.
[Heroic Willpower – 16 Slots]
+500 Willpower
[Glorious Endurance – 8 Slots]
+250 Endurance
*****
Lusting for power, Looper forged this ring as a shortcut to dominion. Now, a cursed echo, it traps the wearer in an endless cycle of death and rebirth. Only those with the strongest of wills can hope to survive the endless loop.
[Time: 03:00:00]
The Ancient item. The bids were already in the two hundred billions. The stats alone it provided were absurd. She didn’t have any idea about the natural enchant on it, though. Elera lingered on the item for a moment, her face twisted into its own puzzle. The pushing started again as they stood there, knocking her out of her revery.
“Let’s go back up,” Hannah offered. “See if we can’t find the other two.”
Elera nodded and they snaked their way through the crowd, back up the balcony, casually inspecting the items as they passed. Neither bid on anything. After Hannah spotted the legendary quiver, everything else sort of paled in comparison.
They stopped on the sixth floor, leaning against an open spot on the balcony and looking down at the four items so Elera could maintain eye contact.
“So, thoughts?” Elera asked with a grin.
“Eh, crap, all of it. Waste of time coming here.” Hannah shrugged, and Elera laughed with her.
“Going for the ring?” Hannah asked.
“Maybe, but will likely go for the Ember. Even with the combined wealth of the summer and twilight elves, I’m not certain I can outbid Gideon.”
“He won’t go for the Ember?”
“I would be shocked if he doesn’t already have one. I get whiffs of the First Flame every time he breathes fire.”
“Think anyone else will outbid you?”
“Hard to say. It’s pretty much only useful for fire users. Having your mana tinged with the First Flame is nice, but I’m not sure it’s worth…” She raised her bracelet to check the current bid on the ember, “375,123,234,435 AP to someone without flame magic.”
Hannah checked through the items once more. To her shock, the quiver was sitting at the lowest, only 150,000,000,000 AP. The real bidding war seemed to be taking place over the Catch-All of Ascension; it was sitting at over five hundred billion and still climbing while everything else had stalled a bit, climbing much slower.
“Why’s the race upgrade so popular?” Hannah asked.
“Upgrading your race to Epic is fairly straightforward. Legendary, though? It’s a rather unpleasant endeavor, requiring both an absurd amount of exotic ingredients, a master alchemist willing to attempt to even make it for you, and that’s just the beginning. Half the races in the tower require weird, esoteric rituals to get certain race upgrades. Really, though, there are lots of old relics in the Tower on the verge of dying from old age. That potion will buy them ten thousand more years at the very least. You could argue that’s the most valuable thing here, really. Time.”
“How about the ring? Any idea what Looper’s Domain is?”
“No idea. Obviously, some sort of training realm, but I’ve never actually heard of it.”
“Hey,” a voice said from behind. She turned to see Devin and Nutt walking towards them. Nutt was holding a large ladle she hadn’t seen him carry before.
“You win something?” Hannah asked, glancing at Nutt swinging his ladle around.
“We both did,” Devin said, handing Hannah a pair of earrings.
“You buying me jewelry?” she asked, squinting at him.
“I’m keeping those for myself, actually. Spawned into next to an item with thirty seconds on the time. Won them for 5,000 AP!” He laughed.
Hannah inspected the earrings, and Elera oohed and ahhed over her shoulder.
Elven Ears
Type: Earrings
Tier: Rare
Elven Ears - Natural Enchant
Grants the wearer preternatural hearing
Enchantment Slots: 4/4
[Minor Focus - 2 Slots]
+25 Focus
[Minor Dexterity - 2 Slots]
+25 Dexterity
*****
You may not see it coming, but you will hear it coming.
Hannah clipped them on out of curiosity. She focused in on a conversation happening across the Atrium and could make it out in perfect clarity. Even more absurd, if she focused hard, she could hear the contracting and muscles moving when she looked at Devin, but that was likely a compounding effect of her already high focus.
“Well, those are going to come in handy,” Hannah said, handing Devin back the studs.
“How about you, Nutt? What’s the ladle do?”
“Watch!” he said excitedly. Nutt picked a direction and tossed the ladle as hard as he could before Hannah could get an inspection off. The ladle spun head over handle towards a trio gathered around an item display. With each rotation the ladle tripled in size until a spoon befitting a giant slammed into the backs of the three unsuspecting victims. Nutt instantly disappeared.
Devin let out a long sigh. “I’ll go make sure he isn’t dead out there,” he groaned, walking over to the ladle and picking it up. It shrank back down to normal size and he gave it a casual spin in his hand before whacking another unsuspecting test dummy on the side of the head with it. He disappeared as well.
“Sorry,” Hannah called out apologetically. “Think they’ll be okay out there?” she asked Elera.
“Probably better if they get out early, actually.” Elera shrugged, glancing over the balcony once more.
The hall went quiet as the main character finally made his appearance. Gideon sauntered forward, the crowd splitting apart for him as he stepped up to the four items, inspecting each carefully. He stared intently at the ring for several long minutes. He clearly had some idea of what it really was.
Gasps rang out moments later.
“Well, it doesn’t look like I’ll be winning that bid,” Elera sighed. Hannah checked for herself.
Looper’s Insanity
[Gideon the Gold – 13,856,793,635,452 AP.]
Thirteen, almost fourteen trillion.
“Were you even in the running for it? That’s a trillion. A trillion AP,” Hannah said twice over.
“See for yourself,” Elera grinned. Hannah checked the items again; this time, her mouth dropped open.
Ember of the First Flame
[Elera of the Summer Wind – 5,000,000,000,000 AP.]
“How?” Hannah asked, shocked Elera was hanging on to so much wealth.
“I told you, I have the combined AP of the summer elves and the twilight elves. That isn’t even all of it.”
“Are you sure you want to bid this early on?”
“Should be fine.” Elera shrugged. “Despite the numbers you’re seeing here, most people don’t have a lot of AP. I would be shocked if anyone else had this much on them.”
“Why not?”
“Wealth isn’t typically measured in how much AP you have. It’s sort of a dead currency, really. It’s easily farmable, making it unstable and susceptible to constant inflation and deflation. It’s also disappearing constantly because, well, when people die, their AP disappears with them. The Tower is a bartering society, for the most part. You give me your magic item, and I’ll give you mine. Then you have to remember that we caught people with their pants down by rushing the auction house. Not a lot of time to consolidate wealth in the form of AP.”
Hannah nodded. She had heard that sentiment before from Cristopher, actually, one day when he’d been complaining about not having a stable currency within the Tower.
The next two hours were long and a bit stressful. Hannah wished that Elera had waited until the last moment to bid, because she kept nervously checking the items to make sure Elera was still in the lead. Hannah checked the quiver; it was the lowest of all the items, at 876,576,845,120 AP.
“Sure you’re not going to buy anything?” Elera asked when there was ten minutes left.
Hannah glanced around. Most of the display cases had left. At this point, she was more focused on the upcoming battle that was about to transpire.
“Yeah, I’m sure. Think it’s going to be bad out there?”
“Hard to say. We’d better make sure we’re prepared when we head out there, agreed?”
Hannah squinted at Elera; she had a mischievous grin on her face and nodded towards the items. Hannah inspected the quiver once more.
Unseen Allure
[Elera of the Summer Wind – 2,000,000,000,000 AP.]
“What the fuck?” tumbled out of Hannah’s mouth, causing Elera to burst out in to giggles.
“Very impressive, Elera, wherever you’re hiding,” Gideon boomed from the Atrium below.
“Why?” Hannah asked.
“Might as well,” Elera shrugged. “I just told you, AP is useless, for the most part. If I can buy one Legendary item, why not buy two? Although, we still have a few minutes left. I could get screwed over in the last few moments here.”
“You could,” Hannah still said in disbelief. “Someone has the chance to swoop in and steal the Ember now, and your funds are split.”
“Then I’ll hunt them down and kill them on the outside,” Elera said, her face turning dark and eyes flashing yellow flames.
Hannah was so distracted with the fact that Elera just placed a bid on the quiver that she didn’t realize the atrium had burst into chaos once more.
She glanced down at the ring. This time she was actually speechless.
Looper’s Insanity
[Samuel Frost – 20,000,000,000,000 AP.]
“How…?” The word came out of her, nothing more than a shocked whisper, her breath catching in her throat.
“Oooh, things just got interesting. Wonder if Gideon placed a random number bet to make it look like he used up all his—”
Before she could finish her sentence, Gideon climbed back into the lead. “Thought so.”
Looper’s Insanity
[Gideon the Gold – 21,000,000,000,000 AP.]
Hannah watched in shock, unable to comprehend what was happening as Sam outbid Gideon once more at twenty-two trillion. Then Gideon bumped it to twenty-five with fifteen seconds left. Hannah wasn’t even paying attention to Elera, who was excitedly commentating next to her.
At the five-second mark, Sam placed his final bid, and Hannah felt her eyes welling slightly, shocked, confused, excited, and scared for him all in one moment.
Looper’s Insanity
[Samuel Frost – 37,465,654,867,255 AP.]
“Samuel!” Gideon let loose a titanic roar that shook the atrium. Golden flames appeared all around him, instantly flash frying everyone in a ten-foot radius. Gideon disappeared.
[The auction is now closed. Thank you for participating.]
Hannah turned to Elera, who was smiling ear to ear, holding a glowing ember and quiver slung around her shoulder.
“You can borrow this; better get ready,” she said, handing the quiver to Hannah. Elera cracked open the cylinder holding the ember, played hot potato for a few seconds, then pulled it into her core, breathing out steam as she did so.
“Oh my, this is quite hot,” she complained, looking back up at Hannah. “Hey, quit staring at me. I said you can borrow it, not keep it.” She paused, tilting her head slightly. “What’s the matter?”
“We have to help Sammy escape,” Hannah said, desperation in her voice.
“Who?” Elera asked.
The world went black as the auction house ejected them.
Hannah was unceremoniously dropped into the middle of complete chaos. Magic was ripping through the air, weapons rang out as they clashed against each other. A golden dragon was swimming through the skies, gracefully dodging massive spears being hurled at him. Hannah traced who was throwing them at Gideon.
An enormous, six-armed elephant was hurling tree-trunk-sized harpoons at Gideon, who was returning fire with golden flames that the elephant easily charged through, unperturbed. Whenever the magic surrounding him got too chaotic, he let loose an earth-shattering trumpet from his trunk, and the magic in the air dispersed as though it had never existed in the first place.
Elera wore a wild smile on her face and was cackling maniacally, clearly enjoying the chaos. She swirled her hands in the air, and a burning tornado formed around them both, then exploded outward, burning up and knocking away the surrounding crowd. Once the area around them both was clear, she withdrew what looked like a morningstar from her void ring. She threw the head of the flail upwards into the air, and the chain extended until it was looming a hundred feet above them both.
“Buy me some time while I charge this up, will you?” Elera asked, pumping mana into her flail. The morningstar burned bright yellow, growing larger and larger until it was the size of a small sun.
Meanwhile, people started charging them.
Hannah glanced at the legendary quiver. It had downgraded to Epic, due to the mana levels of the second floor, but the natural enchants still remained. She immediately began to prime an attack, glancing at the first natural enchant ability.
[Invisible Shot – Natural Enchant]
Enchant any five arrows you fire, making them completely invisible and erasing all mana signatures. Recharge time: ten minutes. Can be combined with Alluring Shot.
As she poured mana into the first arrow, she wasn’t entirely sure her plan was going to work. She wanted to use her [Infernal Sentinels], but she always just sort of summoned them into existence. She had never fired them out of an arrow. Still, she channeled the ability, focusing on priming it in the arrow she had readied on her bow. Then she turned it invisible and shot it at the ground nearby.
Hannah let loose a triumphant smile as a flaming sentinel burst from the ground. Normally, she would give them a bow to use, but they could create their own, if need be. The sentinel’s left arm sprouted two large, curved limbs in the shape of a bow. She commanded it to fire at a group of approaching combatants, who were caught entirely off-guard from the invisible assault.
Hannah let loose her own wild grin to match Elera’s and quickly shot out three more sentinels. The quiver let her create an invisible kill box with flaming, invisible arrows shooting from every singular direction.
“I take it you have something to do with this?” Elera asked from behind as bodies dropped dead, covered in burn marks all around them.
“You almost done with that thing?” Hannah asked, glancing upwards at the giant sun in the sky that was threatening to overpower the moon.
“Almost. Why? You got a target?”
Hannah sighted in on Gideon, still at odds against the elephant hurling spears at him. Hannah had no idea who that was, but she sent him her thanks for keeping the dragon busy. Hannah began to prime a [Charged Shot]. While pouring her mana into the ability, she glanced at the second enchant of the quiver.
[Alluring Shot – Natural Enchant]
Enchant any five arrows you fire, so anyone who looks at the arrow is unable to break their gaze away. Recharge time: ten minutes. Can be combined with Invisible Shot.
She still had one invisible shot left.
“I’ll create an opening for you. Get ready to crush a dragon,” Hannah shouted back. Elera cackled with delight at the suggestion.
As the [Charged Shot] reached its limit of how much mana she could pump into it, she turned it invisible. Then she enchanted it with [Alluring Shot]. A spiral of deep purple mana enveloped the arrow.
She let the shot loose, not directly at Gideon, but in his eyeline.
It was odd watching the arrow fly through the air. It was almost bad that there was a crowd here to witness it. It sailed over the heads of the chaotic crowd fighting below, and everyone stopped mid-fight to look upward. Some people were unlucky enough to get killed because they couldn’t look away from her arrow. Watching the flow of combat, she could clearly see a straight line of people who stopped everything to watch her invisible attack fly through the air, unknowing of what they were looking at.
Elera clued into this all instantly, watching intently for the perfect moment.
The arrow sailed through the air, cutting in front of Gideon, and the dragon stopped mid-dodge, getting clipped by a spear and letting loose a pained roar. Still, he never broke eye contact with Hannah’s invisible arrow. He likely knew what was happening, but it was too late; they had trapped him.
The final blow never came, though.
“What are you waiting for?” Hannah screamed back at Elera.
Elera stood there frozen, squinting up into the sky and looking past her artificial sun, past the dragon, all the way up to the broken moon.
A large, ominous crack rang out, and the world froze, everyone not enchanted by Hannah’s arrow looking for the source of the noise they couldn’t quite explain.
Hannah traced Elera’s gaze, past Gideon flapping his powerful wings in the air, far up into the night sky at the moon that was ever-watching. Another deep crack ran down its center.
Then the moon exploded.